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Tuesday, 6 September 2011

Thousands Of New Homes For Stratford

By Ben Aulakh

More than 8, 000 new homes could be built in and around Stratford upon Avon in the next 20 years, after the district council unanimously backed a plan to boost new builds in the area.

Stratford-on-Avon District Council's Cabinet agreed on Monday September 5 to support two independent reports which have recommended that thousands of new homes are built in the area by 2028.

Leader of Stratford-on-Avon District Council, Councillor Chris Saint said, “The reports form a significant piece of work and are two parts of the complete jigsaw that will go towards the development of the Core Strategy for the area.

“As part of the strategy we want to encourage affordable family homes alongside the building of more three bedroom housing, as well as the provision of extra care accommodation.

“We also want to re-use brown field sites in preference to new green field sites, and also take this opportunity to review our policy of redundant rural buildings.”

However the council’s estimation for the number of new properties needed is based on a low rate of immigration into the area, something which Cllr Saint says is needed to ‘preserve the special nature of our District, whilst protecting our countryside for future generations.’

The council also recently received the findings of the Employment Land study, which councillors say provides a ‘comprehensive and robust basis for considering the amount, types and broad location of additional employment land in the District.

The decision by the local authority to support this level of new construction will form a key part of the districts emerging planning policies for the area in 2012.

This plan amounts to around 400 new build properties each year; 545 new build properties have already been delivered in the district since 2008.